Facts

ECA Marketing, Inc., is a marketing company that helps connect financial advisors, asset managers, and life insurance agents with the tools and resources needed to obtain more business and select the best products for their clients. On March 8, 2020, Ryan Odom, named plaintiff and class representative, received one prerecorded ringless voice message from ECA on his cell phone offering him the opportunity to join ECA by becoming a user of a free marketing program, the "Power of Zero Fast Start Kit," which ECA offered only to certain licensed financial advisors and insurance brokers in order to increase the agents' success with clients. Odom claims he did not consent to this call, nor was the call related to an emergency. Accordingly, Odom filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that Defendant had a practice of using an auto-dialing phone system to place advertising phone calls to consumers; that Defendant used this auto-dialing system to place calls to consumers' cell phones without the consumers' consent; that these calls were willful violations of the provisions of the TCPA entitled to treble damages; and that Defendant had placed a sufficient number of these auto-dialed calls to consumers that a class should be certified.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant contended that the ringless voice message Plaintiff claims he received was not a violation of the TCPA, that Plaintiff was not registered on any "Do Not Call" list, received only one ringless voice message, and never objected to the ringless voicemail. Defendant has never previously (or since) been accused of violating the TCPA.

Settlement Discussions

The parties attended an all-day mediation session before the Honorable Suzanne H. Segal, former United States Magistrate Judge, on October 22, 2020. The parties reached a tentative agreement, but continued to finalize material terms until November 16, 2020 when a settlement term sheet was executed.

Result

Settlement was reached by the two parties wherein ECA will pay $990,000 to eligible class members.

Other Information

An order granting preliminary approval of the settlement agreement was entered on May 27, 2021.